USS Callister: Infinity
by Jay Flemming
Summary: The 'crew' of the USS Callister set out on an epic (and endless?) adventure through an endless procedurally generated universe. Their escape from a heavily modified system and their unique genetic consciousness has more of an effect on them and their new world then they realized. What is there place in a galaxy full of Gamer's, Pirate, NPC's and shifting time vortexes?
1. Chapter 1: Brave New Worlds

'Nanette?'

'It's time to wake up.'

'You're… you're dead.'

'I know right? I'm not sure what's going on.'

'Well at least I know I can dream. '

'Is that what this is? But how can we both be-'

"Good Morning captain. How do you feel?" The computer sounding voice woke Nanette with a start.

The day before had been one of freedom, learning the bridge controls, communicating with dozens of players, figuring out the best course. Everyone had opted to stay on-board. As for being captain, the vote was unanimous. Besides, the ship wouldn't function without an active captain.

"Hello.. fine I guess… what time is it… and who is this?"

"The time index is now 0600, and I am your personal computer assistant." said a dull sounding female voice that perfectly complimented that the hospital white décor of the captain's quarters. The walls were lined with electrostatic l-e-d-s, glowing with computer panels and highlighted by holographic controls.

"Thanks umm, computer, woman, person. It was then she remembered the basic hud given to players in the game. Apparently the code had recognized her as a player and assigned her one, it usually took a few hours to generate the data needed to create an assistant customized to each user.

"You're welcome, but I am not a person. What would you like for breakfast?"

"Wow… I could eat a horse..."

"Generating horse based-"

"No.. wait! That wasn't a literal command."

"Sorry Captain."

"How about bacon, eggs, some toast? And don't call me captain."

"Understood Captain."

"I just…You know don't have to call me that."

"Your player id indicates that you were the last to come aboard with the rank of Lieutenant, and my algorithm's are programmed to recognize your inputs as the designated highest ranking officer with capacity. Federation maritime law designates you-"

"Whatever, just call me Nan, ok?

"Affirmative."

"Now what are you… exactly? The old ship didn't have… a whatever you are."

"I am Journalistic Integrated Logistical Processing-" The computer began a long list of adjectives that quickly blended together.

"I'm just going to call you JIL ok?"

"JIL, understood. According to protocol, The crew is to be awakened in approximately 12 minutes…"

"You know what… let them sleep. Actually, it's the first sleep any of them have had in… "

It was then that she considered what time actually meant in this new universe. They were still going by a 24 hour clock, so it wasn't so strange. Still was it 6 o'clock where ever the 'real' Nanette was?

"JIL where are we?" She asked as a small white panel near a window slid open to reveal a tray of perfectly cooked eggs, bacon, with two toasted bread like squares, complete with butter and jelly. She sat down as a holographic display lit up next to her.

"You are in quadrant 001, sector 12, mark 1343. Closest system is Pythagoras, with seven uncharted worlds. This region of space is claimed by the Hegemony of Mark, and the Union of Suckmybal. Average user score 212345, playtime 2302 hours. Number of players not including those on board the Callister… 32."

"2300… Is this a newer region?"

"Correct"

"Well.. at least we won't have to worry about Pirates for the moment."

Nanette quickly finished her breakfast, relishing the taste of what was supposed artificial food. She remembered that the company had responded to complaints about the lack of taste and smell to the synthetic food. Apparently the update had corrected that.

The well corridor was alive with the sound of music emanating from somewhere in the distance. It was a jazzy sound of a trumpet a pleasant piano in the background. It was then Nanette noticed something else. People… other people. Not the stolen people she'd met when being introduced to what was meant to be her own private Tartarus. A work crew had pulled a panel open, and were chattering about the latest mission.

"Hi?" She said sheepishly to one handsome ensign who was working on a panel.

He immediately snapped up and saluted.

"Captain!"

"Ok, whoa… take it easy. Who… who are you?"

"Ensign Junero Frost sir!"

The officer had an odd look to him, almost too perfect. Like someone's idea of a beautiful futuristic human would look like. A sheen that was almost… That's when she remembered. NPC's, the game had programmed NPC characters that would act as crewmen to assist running the ship. They weren't too deep. A few lines of dialogue, rarely involved in the main plot, vague characters with randomized stats and zero agency.

"Well then… um, carry on." She said play acting along.

She headed down other corridors, encountering random crew, some alien, some not. She counted a few dozen, then she heard the sound of heavy garage music coming from down the corridor.

Apparently someone was up.

The door slid open to Shania relaxing on a couch in the crew lounge, the lights were low, and she was staring out the window.

"Hey you!" She said pleasantly.

Nanette then saw Kabir at a computer counsel, he turned and smiled.

"Captain on deck!" He said slightly happily, and then walked over to give her a hug.

"What's the hug for?" Nanette responded laughing.

"I don't know, maybe saving us from a literal hell?" He said beaming.

"I didn't- I mean it wouldn't have worked if everyone hadn't helped out."

"Yeah, but you still came up with the plan. Far as I'm concerned you saved us." Shania said getting up from her position.

"It's freakin' bonkers right? I mean here we are in the bloody game. I only ever played the demo, and now I'm in it right? I mean it's loco...but it beats being abused by that big headed pillock." She continued.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Probably still sleepin'. I have to tell you, that was the best sleep of my life." Shania chimed back.

"What about…Walt?"

"We scanned, but if he made it through, there's no way to know if the new program reintegrated him or just deleted him because of the permadeath protocol." Kabir offered.

The door slid open, and the rest of the merry crew walked in.

The chattering and embracing commenced anew.

Elena, and Kabir spoke at length about their first night of this new reality.

Elena had been already asked out by the young NPC doctor, though the program hadn't given the man a name. Kabir and Nate managed to figure out that the ship was a little different then the default game ship, with upgraded weapons and shields, probably due to Daly's special improvements.

Nate walked in with a girl who had literal cat fur for skin and a tail. Her wide eyes were human, though her nose and ears was somewhat feline.

"See you later…" the girl said as she saw all the senior officers had gathered, and sauntered off.

"You to." He replied with a small handsome smile.

"Whoa… really? Oh my god Nate." Shania said with a cocked head incredulous at Nate's predilections.

"What, I dig furries… " Nate replied, sheepishly.

"Ok… cat people aside… this reality is pretty freakin' great." Kabir said folding his arms.

"So this is life now…?" Nanette said off-handedly. Picking a tuft of fur from Nate's shoulder.

"Guess so. I mean it's not too bad. The food tastes like food. The game has a variety of sweet settings, and the music is on point" Shania said boldly.

"Also sex." Nate said smiling broadly. Shania giggled and elbowed him.

The crew busied themselves with eating and relaxing. Nanette sat with Kabir, trying to figure out what was in store for them.

"You never read the full manual?"

"I mean I downloaded the trial version, and but only to check out the code…I'm not a big fan of sci-fi"

Kabir nodded, clearly trying not to judge.

"Well, the whole game has some pretty cool-"

"Does earth exist in Infinity? I mean could we go home?" Nanette inquired cutting him of slightly.

"Home? Actually, in this game earth is a lost planet, destroyed by an environmental disaster,"

"Damn… global warming? I always knew-" Shania

"Space parasite zombie invasion." Kabir announced dramatically.

"Ok, that's different." Nanette offered.

"But humans survived, mostly thanks to a host of aliens… and the Federation of course. The game is set around a crew of intrepid humans and their missions to keep the Federation and humanity safe."

"So, there's no going home in here.. What about the real world?"

"You mean reintegration? I don't know. It's theoretically possible, but how would that even work? We don't have brains to be downloaded into, and even if we did, there's no way to know what would happen."

It was then that the computer chimed in.

"Captain-,"

"Nan-"

"Nan, there is an incoming message from Fleet command. Admiral Foalsely. "

"Who?"

"Fleet command, it's the hierarchal structure we put in the game that represents the coalition of peaceful planets established in 21XX -" Nate began rattling off.

"Oh my god… did you memorize the whole thing?" Shania said mouthing the word nerd to Kabir.

"Umm, yeah, it was my job." Kabir said proudly.

"Nevermind…" Shania said, realizing she was outnumbered by nerds.

"Kabir put a pin in reintegration. Ok… I'll take it In here JILL."

A small screen snapped to life with an imperious looking man on the other end. He looked like Morgan Freeman with a neon colored afro. A took Nanette a moment, but then she quickly realized it was Morgan Freeman. The music in the lounge shifted from jazz, to a more somber space fairing epic sound.

"Oh… nice music que. Totally set's the mood." Shania said, seemingly excited by the change in score.

"Hello…?" Nanette asked carefully.

"Lieutenant Cole, I see you've assembled your team, excellent." The morgan freeman-esque character said frankly.

"My team?"

"Yes… the senior officers."

"Right.. oh right. Ahem… my Team."

"Why does he look like Morgan Freeman?" Shania asked in a whisper.

"They must have really upped the celebrity budget," Nate responded.

"As of right now, I'm granting you a field promotion to Captain. The federation is in desperate need of good captains, and I'm sure you'll do us all proud." The older man said smiling in a way that seemed to convey confidence. The other members of 'the crew' smiled, as the man continued. The music que in the background shifted to mission theme, a brassy number with heavy bass that seemed to signify importance.

"No rest for the weary I'm afraid. I've got a mission for you, and it's not going to be easy. A Zerkonian freighter carrying a secret cargo that is above top secret will be arriving in sector 342 in 12 hours. You are to rendezvous without, and transport the cargo to its final destination, Marva 7."

"Sir… what's the cargo?"

"That's need to know information Captain. For now just make sure it arrives safely. Saberian battleships have been spotted shadowing the freighter, and as you know the situation on Marva is tense. The cargo needs to arrive intact, otherwise these peace talks could turn ugly, and a war could break out between the Legion of Suckit142, and the Hegemony of Aholes. Foalesly out."

The screen cut out, and the music que faded.

"Screw this." Elena said folding her arms, and shaking her head.

"Wait a minute." Kabir chimed in.

"You are not considering this?" Elena asked.

"There are a lot of things to consider." Nanette replied.

"It's a stupid side quest." Nate offered.

"Actually it could be on the main quest line, there's no way to tell." Kabir countered.

"So what if we just blow it off?" Nanette inquired.

"Then a full war could break out, and I don't think I have to remind you, we aren't immortal." Kabir added.

"Are you sure? I mean are we sure we aren't like gods… or something?" Elena asked.

"Well, codes been overwritten. Whatever mods'-" Nate offered.

"Don't even say his name." Elena countered.

"So…say a war does break out and people start shooting, we could be vaporized." Nanette replied.

"So we have to go along with this dumb ass game, still?" Elena

"Well when we complete missions we xp and sp." Nate answered.

"Oh my god, I'm asking a question. What the hell does that mean?" Shania shook her head.

Nate spoke up. "We can level up our characters, increase our stats, and buy new equipment. If we don't were going to run into gamers that will run circles around us."

"But you programmed the game, can't we like… cheat or somethin'." Shania protested.

"Of course, but were modded now. If we get caught…we could be banned, and I don't even know what happens then."

"I say we do it. Then we'll figure out the rest later ok? I mean it's just a standard escort mission, what could go wrong?" Nanette asked.


	2. Chapter 2: Procedurally Dreaming

A large explosion rocked the bridge, and Nanette nearly fell out of the Captain's chair in which she was awkwardly perched a moment before.

"What the hell was that?"

"Umm…" Nate sputtered.

Kabir turn in his chair slightly.

"We have a rupture in cargo bay 1, and damage to the lateral thrusters!" Kabir screeched in panic.

"Nate what happened?"

"Ok, remember those Saberian warships from the briefing? I think they just fired on us." Nate replied, quickly tapping the controls.

"Shoot the bloody-" Shania started, but another explosion rocked the bridge as sparks emanated from seemingly nowhere.

"Wait!" Nanette said desperately.

"Port stabilizer hit, light damage."

"Nanette, you're going to get us killed." Nate growled.

"Don't fire!" Nanette repeated.

"Teper ya ne khochu vmyraty!" Elena announced loudly, as the bridge shook again.

"Oh god, I'm going to die on a ship as a virgin to an alien ship that hasn't rendered properly." Kabir said in a panic as one of the enemy ships came into view on the large forward window screen. It was long, with a brown tint and three large square pods with talon like wing protrusions. From each side jutted a large weapon pod, and the center had a bridge like structure. The enemy bridge however looked slightly off, with unfinished details that seemed slightly blurry. The lights on the bridge dimmed as they fired again, but the shields appeared to hold for the moment.

"They are hailing us-." Shania said as her counsel flashed to life.

"Wait… this isn't right." Nanette said as she stood up fully.

"We're in space, in a computer simulation, about to be killed by laser gun, none of this is right!" Elena said from her position over Nanette's shoulder.

"No, I mean, they are firing at full power, and we barely got scratched." Nanette countered.

"How the hell do you know?" Shania retorted, her nose wrinkled in incredulity.

"Check our specs. I'll bet you we outclass them in every way." Nanette said folding her arms, and awaiting the check.

Elena paused as she looked over the sensor readings. "She's right, we could blow 'dem away with one shot."

"Oh, well that's just great." Kabir chimed back.

"So… they can't kill us." Nate chirped.

"Exactly, but they want us to kill them." Nanette replied confidently.

"Why?" Kabir asked worriedly.

"Put them on screen."

A moment later a tall pale humanoid with black eyes, pointed teeth, and blue hair appeared. He was dressed in a colorful tunic and flanked by armed soldiers.

"Unidentified vessel, I am Major Enoch. You are in violation of the Legion of Suckit's borders. You will-"

"No... I don't think so. Listen up Enoch, you're going to leave this region immediately, and I'll consider not rendering you a new butthole."

"How dare you- do you know who-"

"I know that my weapons out class you by a factor of 10, and I know that the Legion of Suckit just want's an official kill so you can declare war on the neighboring faction. You have 20 seconds to turn around, or I will leave you floating dead in space. End transmission." The screen cut with the mans' angry face contorting into another response.

"Seriously… how did you-"

"I test played this scenario, it was my second day, and I was in charge of QC for one of the new updates. It's supposed to weed out trigger happy immature players who should be playing FPS games instead of more detailed scenarios."

"So if we had destroyed them?" Shania asked.

"Scan that nebula." Nanette said as she spied a familiar asset.

"Twelve more vessels, and a… damn a Saberian battlecruiser." Elena chimed in.

"Boom… Instant perma death." Nanette said with a deep breath.

"Their retreating."

The freighter near them signaled it had reached the designated nav point, then jumped away.

"Mission complete" said JIL as the screen in front of them announced the same with gold letters.

A collective whoop swept across the crew as they celebrated.

"Did you … did you just metagame?" Kabir asked smiling.

"Maybe a little." Nanette chirped back.

….

"So… what'd we get?"

"1500 XP, 1200 Credits, and 100 of whatever these things are…" Kabir pointed at a chest of bluish stones.

"Wait… super nerd doesn't know what they are?"

"Hey, I don't know everything, they might have been added for the last update…"

"JIL what the heck are these blue things?"

"Those are unprocessed Dylanthol crystals… they can be exchanged for credits or exchanged for direct euro's. They can also be used to enhance the end user experience by speeding up upgrades." JIL's direct response was clinical.

"Oh god." Kabir sputtered.

"What?"

"It's currency, damn pay to play crap."

"Oh no. I thought they decided not to put that feature in, the guys' were always arguing-"

"There are no guys remember, ones trapped in a closed off network and hopefully dead by now, the other-"Nate's recount was cut off by Nanette's stone cold observation.

"-Had his atoms re-arranged by a futuristic propulsion system." She said with a certainty that was chilling.

"So… who's in charge?" Elena asked worriedly.

"Whoever it is probably going to stick the end users with money making schemes, strip customer support, and-", Kabir sat down in the mess hall thinking through the worst possible scenario's.

"Why the hell are we caring about this?" Shania snapped.

"Because this procedural paradise we're in is only as good as the programmers updating it." Nanette responded, as she picked up one of the rocks, and studied it closely.

…

Nanette walked slowly back to her quarters, tired from another crazy day in a series of crazy days. She turned the last bend to find Junero, hard at work by himself near her quarters. It was a different panel, but oddly not as damaged as the one earlier.

"Um… hi, again."

"Oh, Captain, sir, I mean ma'am."

"No… it's ok. It's been a long day, no need to be so… formal." She said casually. "At ease."

"Aye captain." Junero replied, as Nanette tried to avoid looking at his perfect eyes, and physique. Her mind couldn't help but wonder just how well the simulation worked at certain aspects.

"So uh, what are you doing?" She asked trying to maintain a reason for the conversation.

"Well, we've been finding weird power flow rates all over the ship, and the sensors keep showing an extra crew member. It's gotta be a glitch or a bug. So I'm just running a hyperscan of the area with this %^#4!"

She almost laughed, realizing that there was a part of the code missing that impacted the NPC's speech. The beta testing on the new update clearly had some rough spots still.

"So, Junero, what do you do after work, for fun?" Nanette asked wondering if it had a programmed response.

Junero stared at her a moment, then tilted his head.

"Hey, are you hitting on me?"

"What!? No… I'm just…"

"It's ok, I mean it's not against regs or anything, it's just, I'm already seeing someone." Junero said with a pre-rendered sheen that almost gleemed.

"Really, that's good… I mean great."

"Want to see a picture?" Junero quickly produced a digital device with a picture of yellowish looking creature with at least 6 limbs and an odd number of eyes.

"Isn't it special? Its family moved to Seraphim three cycles ago… I'm fairly certain it's the one." Junero said smiling clearly smitten.

"Wow… sh- they are really… something. Gotta go.", she slipped through her door, doing her best to hide her surprise and vague feelings of disgust and let it close with a smile on her face.

Junero, shrugged, and continued his work. Behind him, a shimmering figure silently formed behind him, it's poorly rendered face looked like it was howling, then all at once, it vanished. Junero acted is if he registered something, then went back to work.


	3. Chapter 3: Board Rules

"It's happening again!" The yell came from a large conference room, where a dozen project leads sat sheepishly, as Jimmy ranted. The glass doors rattled as several temps huddled outside, listening with growing concern.

Two employees, at the head of the room brought up pages of data on the virtual view screen, as their hands held several tablets with pages of code.

"Eight more reports of a nigh-unkillable capital ship that looks like a regular stock model. They don't show up as users, but they don't code as NPC's and they are solving scenario's like they wrote the damn code.

Kabir shook his head, acknowledging that he had no answers.

"Ok, can we confirm that it's not a bug?" Jimmy asked exasperated. "Remember that before you answered, I fired the last leads because they said they didn't know.

"We know that it isn't random. The other leads think it's a hack, but the odd thing is, no one knows what part of the code could be corrupted. They are basically normal users." Nate responded, clearly aware his new promotion did not come at a great time.

"Could we play that it's part of the game, a ship designed to be caught by the elite of the elite for a top prize?" Said a sly female marketing rep flanking CEO Jimmy Walton, at the head of the table.

"Karen has a good point, if we could sell it as a feature-,"

"The problem is we have no way to control the glitch, if it takes down more beginners and noobs-" Kabir countered.

"Then we could seriously hurt new reviews." Karen, said sternly.

Anatoly the newest employee brought into try to crack Daly's personal code, approached the board and studied it. "I think we could be looking at more than one anomaly."

There was silence. Elena stopped taking notes, as Jimmy shook his head at her sternly.

"and… look at the items purchased, food modifiers, new clothes, a sunglasses mod, a sports bra, simple tool kit… these items are being used simultaneously. It's like…"

"A crew? Really?" Karen chimed in disbelievingly, folding her arms.

"Multiple hackers… working together? I thought you mapped out the entire thing already. You told me it was one ship! Same ship Multiplayer isn't even supposed to functional!"

"It's possible, the code is too vast, and procedural generation with this much processing power and the algorithm's are-" Kabir chimed

"And there in separate places, I mean this one could have six or seven users," He pointed to a dark spot In the galactic map. "This over here, is just one, but it's rapidly gaining XP." He pointed to an identifier that was blinking… I mean how do we-"

"I don't want to hear excuses, CallCon is in two weeks, and all the forums are talking about this… glitch crap, corporate is on our ass, and the Chinese investors are considering a buy. Can you fix it?" Jimmy said angrily.

"We have a couple theories-" Lucy from character development raised her hand.

"I don't want theories, our jobs are on the line. It's been three months since Daly killed himself and if we don't get this thing fixed, the only games we'll be designing will be damn indie pledge games. GET ..IT…fixed!

"We've been pulling double shifts-" Kabir complained.

"Triple shifts, or you're fired, tell your people if they flake, good luck getting a reference." Jimmy announced, then sat down in a slump.

"What if we introduced a counter agent, a NPC that's designed to seek out the offending code, and match it's stats… sort of like a hunter/seeker command. " Anatoly asked, leaning back in his chair.

"We could add multiple binary searches with trilateral algorithms' and a skin to blend into the environment to keep immersion!" Kabir added.

"Or-" Nate approached the board as well, but before he could finish Jimmy cut him off.

"Or how about you get of here and fix the damn thing? Until it's done this meeting, didn't happen. As far as anyone is aware, we don't have unregistered god-mode users, and any issues will be patched with the next update. Got it?"

"GO!" Jimmy bellowed, and the programmers and leads scattered. Jimmy sat down, and looked at a picture of Daly and him in their college days.

"Why did you have to do something so dumb." He asked to an empty room.


End file.
